Abstract:

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have increasingly embedded equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) commitments into their global corporate architectures. While prior research has examined how such policies are translated across subsidiaries, less attention has been paid to how global EDI commitments reshape employees’ multi-level organizational identification. This paper conceptualizes global EDI architecture as a moral identity claim rather than merely a set of HR practices. We argue that when subsidiaries translate these claims inconsistently, employees may experience identity dissonance between the global MNE and the local subsidiary. This dissonance can produce cross-level identification divergence, whereby identification with the global organization and the subsidiary become misaligned. We develop a typology of identification configurations and propose two divergent pathways: legitimacy erosion and reform-oriented identity work. While cross-level divergence may weaken subsidiary cohesion, under certain conditions it can mobilize internal pressure for alignment with global inclusion commitments. By theorizing identification alignment as an outcome of EDI translation, this paper advances a microfoundational account of how global moral identity claims reorganize internal identity structures within MNCs.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: International Business and International Management

Keywords: Internationalization: headquarters, subsidiaries;International: business;International: management;International: cross-cultural issues

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Dr. Jiayin Qin